Chapter 23: The despair upon the boss's defeat

People didn’t immediately assume that the alien had come to offer congratulations for defeating the boss. There were no kids among the people at this moment. Maybe the kids were watching from somewhere above, but no one knew how they were reacting.

In this situation, all the people could do was wait and watch with sweat forming on their foreheads.

Nova, in contrast, released smoke that began to pour from his entire body, rapidly expanding outward to envelop the skyscrapers below. Every three seconds, four skyscrapers were swallowed by the thickening smoke. Within three minutes, the smoke had completely obscured the thousands of people from the alien's sight.

Nova then unleashed his wind skill, pushing the smoke—and the thousands of people within it—away from the alien, just in case he turned out to be dangerous. He made sure the alien and the other Severer candidates weren’t affected by the wind, allowing them to remain in place.

Through his intercom, Nova said, “Please cover me. I need time to prepare a skill. Keep the alien away if he turns out to be a threat.”

Nova glided away with his wind from the alien, as the smoke—along with the thousands of people—was repelled outward in a circular shape. At that moment, the boss could already see Nova within the smoke's encirclement.

Nova then hurled himself toward the ground, aiming to slam into it. He wanted to draw the alien’s attention so it wouldn’t go after the others.

As Nova slammed himself into the ground with all his might, a five-hundred-meter-wide area around him was crushed. And the moment his footgear made contact with the ground, a surge of energy burst outward from the point of impact, spreading across the surface in a five-hundred-meter radius. His footgear shattered, unable to withstand the massive release of power. The ground caved into a wide pit as Nova continued downward, driven by the force of his slam. Thousands of chunks of rubble—now infused with Nova’s energy—floated in the air, suspended by the aftermath of the slam.

Not stopping there, Nova used the intercom to order the severer candidates to create a firewall between him and the alien. He wanted to delay the alien approach.

The wall was quickly erected—long and towering, stretching hundreds of meters high.

Nova then pulled out five objects from under his clothes and levitated them in front of him. Activating his Overtake skill, he fired a stream of black energy at each one of the object.

Afterward, from each object, a dark, viscous liquid began to seep, rapidly coating its surface. The liquid spread until it enveloped the entire form, eventually solidifying into a perfect black clone—identical in shape and size to the original. As soon as five such clones were created, they moved toward Nova.

As the clones approached, a fierce voice suddenly echoed through the air. It came from the direction of the alien.

“I’ve seen this strategy before—during the first raid boss. Are you planning to gather your power and blast it at me? Why assume I didn’t come to congratulate you? Are you scared and decided to prepare in advance after seeing me cut down the boss in one strike—unlike you, who had to chip away at it little by little? You're so skeptical. But you're not wrong. Because of a personal reason, I do plan to destroy the Earth," said the alien in English.

“It’s not like your blast will have any effect on me—but I won’t let you try it either!” the alien boss added.

He leapt forward.

Ahead of him stood the firewall Nova had meant to use as a deterrent—something to make the alien hesitate.

But the boss didn’t even consider it a threat. He passed through it like it was nothing more than a curtain, his body completely unscathed.

Nova—and everyone around the world—heard the alien boss’s words loud and clear. They had witnessed the entire scene: how the boss effortlessly killed the final boss, and how he passed through the severer candidates towering firewall without a scratch.

Despair clouded their minds.

Goosebumps rippled from their feet to the tops of their heads.

Some burst into tears.

Some crushed the glasses they were holding, injuring their hands.

Others smashed the devices they had been using to watch the broadcast, unable to contain their anger.

People were already at their limit by this point—everyone except Nova and the severer candidates, who were still fighting.

"Like I said, for the first and the last time, please believe in me. Please, don't do anything reckless. At the very least, watch me until the end—until I defeat the boss or die trying," Nova said loudly, making sure his voice reached the camera.

The last clone collapsed forward, touching Nova’s skin. Through the tiny pores of his body, the clone was gradually absorbed until it vanished completely. Then, a black light began to shine from within him. Inside his body, the energy coiled, expanding and contracting, causing his flesh to bulge from the overwhelming pressure.

This was part of Nova’s Overtake skill—a process that allowed him to absorb energy from the five objects and temporarily gain their abilities. If the objects used to create the clones were things like blood, organs, or other alien parts, then absorbing the clones would also grant him the skills tied to those parts. He had tested this beforehand and confirmed it.

The objects Nova was using now came from the boss that granted the Severer title to those who defeated it—he had obtained them from the government after making a request.

As for why he used only five—it was because that was the maximum his body could absorb without breaking down immediately. Nova had discovered all of this through trial and error during his training.

At that moment, the boss entered the area filled with levitating rubble. The instant he touched one of the floating pieces, it exploded, sending him flying backward.

"I'm preparing a special skill right now," explained Nova suddenly. "If I succeed—and if we can keep the boss away long enough for me to finish—I might have a real chance to defeat him. So please, don’t lose hope.”

People stopped crying, their attention now fully fixed on Nova’s camera stream. Their eyes were steady—worry had vanished from their gaze.

“What’s going on here? Why are the rubble exploding?” the boss muttered, staring at the levitating debris in front of him. A few scratches marked his armor.

“It’s not that complicated,” Nova replied, still focused on compressing the energy within his body. “Since I figured you’re the alien behind our year-long nightmare, I assumed you watched our first raid battle. So, I used the firewall as bait—to make you stop me. The explosion was meant to injure you deeply... That explosion was supposed to seriously injure you—but it seems it didn’t do much. Still, with this much rubble floating around, I’m betting it’ll wear you down by the time I’m done preparing.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Now, can you tell which ones will explode?”

“Hmph. It’s a simple problem. There’s no way you’d plant the bombs in a straight line,” said the boss, propelling himself forward with energy. “I’ll just take a bit of damage, then stop you from gathering more power.”

An explosion triggered as he touched the first piece of rubble. Then the second. Third. Fourth… Tenth.

“What’s going on? Why are there so many bombs in a straight line?” the boss muttered in confusion.

“What do you think?” Nova smirked. “I just guessed and laid them out that way—figuring your stupid brain and cold alien heart that killed so many humans would charge straight through.”

But what Nova said was actually a lie. He had placed explosives in every piece of rubble, not just those in a straight line. His words were meant to provoke the boss, to make him angry and lose his calm, rational mindset. By feeding him a fake “pattern,” Nova hoped to distract him with a meaningless puzzle.

If the boss had simply charged forward and endured a bit of damage, Nova wouldn’t have had enough time to finish preparing his skill. But by making him angry, Nova forced him to waste time trying to figure out a solution to a trick that didn’t even exist.

“How dare you…!” the boss roared.

Enraged, he began trying different movement patterns—but every attempt ended the same way, ended with an explosion.

Just then, the other severer candidates appeared from behind the skyscrapers and joined the fight. They launched a barrage of skills to try and stop the boss from advancing.

Veins bulged on the boss’s forehead as wave after wave of attacks and detonations struck him. In the end, perhaps because pushed to the edge, the boss seemed to realize how to counter the floating rubble. With a powerful swing of his arm, he generated a gust of wind that scattered the rubble, sending them gliding away.

But the other severer candidates, using their wind and earth skills, quickly pulled the rubble back into its original position.

This time, the boss tried to blow all of it away at once—but his attack was intercepted. The candidates blocked it with their skills, and some even used their own bodies to shield the rubble.

Frustrated, the boss turned his attacks toward the severer candidates instead. But knowing they stood no chance against him in direct combat, they kept their distance. Even those who were brave enough to get close avoided facing him head-on. They dodged constantly, attacking only when brief openings appeared.

Realizing it was a waste of time and that Nova would finish his preparations if this continued, the boss returned to blasting the rubbles. But the severer candidates came back, once again blocking his path. They kept repeating this cycle—retreating when needed, then returning to interfere each time the boss changed his attack pattern. Through their persistence, they succeeded in keeping him at bay.

As the battle progressed, the energy inside Nova’s body became less wild. It was almost time for the energy to settle.

“As a crafter, I hate having to prepare this simple overtake skill just to force something strong together,” Nova said, releasing his slow sphere into the surroundings. It scattered in many directions, at different distances from him. He planned to use it for something later.

“Like what the government said in their advertisement, ‘Let’s craft the unique you!’ I want to craft my own set of skills too. It’s a shame I can't craft a decent set of skills and have to do it this way. One month isn’t nearly enough time to explore and gather the right combination of skills. One month before the boss fight isn’t nearly enough time to explore and gather the right combination of skills. And if I need to find the right equipment to synergize with the skills, it will take even longer,” said Nova to both the boss and his camera.

He wanted to explain things to people while simultaneously making the boss angry and lose all rational thinking, making himself appear as though he wasn’t taking the battle seriously. He wanted the boss to believe he was looking down on him. It would probably work, given that the boss was already at the peak of his anger.

If I had the chance to craft mine properly, it probably would’ve been just as amazing as the other Severers who’ve already built their own skill sets. But I don’t even know what kind of sets they’ve put together. The only one I’m familiar with is the Burst Brawler. He focused all his skills on enhancing two abilities: body enhancement and explosion for mobility. He uses regeneration to cover for his explosion skill. Then, he used all other skills for body enhancement to match his boxer background. Ah… I also know one more guy. The one covered in paint—his attack power is no joke. It’s probably the result of his skill set choices. But what combination of skill sets could make an enemy perish and vanish? Mine is so lame compared to that, right? You all saw it, right?” Nova kept talking for a long time.

The boss reached his limit. It seemed the plan was working—his face was red with anger. He barraged his blast to Nova relentlessly.

But once more, the Severer candidate was doing a great job keeping him away from Nova. The boss’s face grew even redder.

As for the skills he called lame, people had already been following Nova’s track record—especially after receiving a government notification that an important person would be delivering a crucial message. That was when Nova tried to delay the suicides and postpone them until the final day of the boss fight. Because of this, many already knew about the so-called lame skills—the versatile skills Nova had crafted to adapt to various situations, including survival, while still being powerful enough to defeat normal boss-level enemies and survive in the alien stages.

For example, when fighting the first raid boss, Nova’s skills proved to be highly adaptable—usable in many situations and in various ways.

Pulling and pushing enemies to gain a range advantage and direct them toward desired locations; pulling and pushing allies or Cyre to save them; propelling oneself with oil explosions when enemies can't be moved; using area damage against multiple enemies to avoid wasting energy on single-target skills; transforming mobility or survival-based abilities into powerful offensive tools by combining them with regular skills; and supporting allies by blocking enemy sight—these were all creative strategies Nova had employed in his first boss raid.

Nova hadn’t planned to become a Severer at that time. If he had, he would’ve crafted a set of skills designed to power up and synergize with his main skill—amplifying it multiple times, similar to Cyre’s skill, which could stack its power from level ten to the level of thousands.

Now I can only make myself stronger by doing these simple things that are far from what a real crafter does. But somehow, I guess this can still be called crafting. I’m combining multiple things into one and becoming much, much stronger because of it. Besides, crafting isn’t always about just combining things. Realizing how skills can be used in different ways can also be considered crafting the mind and creativity.

As Nova said this, the black shine on his body vanished, and the energy within him stabilized, forming a thick, compressed force. Although Nova still had to maintain the compression constantly, his Overtake skill was now ready.

"Alright, time's up. For everyone watching—listen to me!" Nova said, releasing a gust of wind toward the rubble in front of him. The debris shot forward, flying straight at the boss.

All the Severer candidates who had been fighting the boss up close quickly moved out of the rubble’s path while firing their skills to pin the boss down, forcing him to stay in place. The boss struggled to move, constantly pushed back by the barrage of attacks.

Moments later, a chain of explosions erupted as the rubble struck the boss relentlessly.

“This is a pinch… right? But… look at me!” Nova said with a grin, excited to test the new power he was about to unleash.

He channeled energy throughout his entire body, enhancing himself physically. Small cracks appeared from top to bottom along the sides of his body.

“If you want to die, then go ahead… but don’t you want to see what happens next?” he shouted.

Black energy shot out from Nova’s hands, forming a long rod that instantly expanded into a two-meter-long, double-faced hammer.

According to the government’s explanation, the hammer was a boss weapon—one that belonged to the boss who granted the title of Severer to whoever defeated it. The hammer could release bursts of energy from both faces, propelling and amplifying the force of each slam.

Among the many boss skills available, Nova chose this one because he was already familiar with explosion-type abilities. Also, from his past experience, he knew that offensive skills like these provided more energy to absorb compared to support-type skills.

With all that in mind, he had absorbed a total of five attack-type skills like these.